PERSON OF THE DAY-FEBRUARY 24-STEVE JOBS

"Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it's really how it works."

 It was much easier this time to select the person of the day.. Who else other than the most brilliant businessman-cum-engineer deserves to be the one. He revolutionize the way we learn, the way we entertain or even the way we live. Apple was no more a fruit.. 'I pad' and 'I pod' became synonyms of tablets and music players.. 'I phone' became the most trusted mobile phone.. To put it simply, Steve Jobs Apple Inc. remold the world, I would say..

Steve Jobs was born in San Francisco on February 24th of 1955. He was given up for adoption as soon as he was born. Later he was adopted an Armenian American couples(Jobs couples). His non-biological parents were poor which lead Jobs to quit his college education. During his early life he struggled a lot. After continuous tenacious effort he managed to built the very first model of the Macintosh. Everything thing started from a garage. From a garage,started the now most valuable Inc. in the world.

He taught us how to fight for what you love. With his life he set an example for achieving your goal. He taught us to "Stay Hungry and Stay Foolish". Anyone could advice.. But Jobs showed us how to win a match.

His death was a great lost.. People like him was and will always be an inspiration to youth like us..

Happy Birthday WINNER....!!!

May you Rest In Peace..

Apple official site: https://www.apple.com/

VINOD DHAM

Born in 1950. Known as the father of the Pentium processor.

Vinod Dham is popularly known as the father of the Pentium processor. Born in 1950 in Pune, he had his intial schooling in Line. He did his Bachelors in in Electrical Engineering from Delhi College of Engineering in 1971. Thereafter he had a brief stint with Continental Devices, a Delhi based Semiconductor company.

                        

In 1975, Vinod Dham went to the US and did his Masters in Electrical Engineering from the university of Cincinnati. After completing his Masters in 1977, Vinod Dham joined the National Cash Register (NCR) at Dayton, Ohio. Vinod was a team member of the NCR's memory design group. He received many patents for his work at NCR.

                        

While making a presentation at the IEEE conference at Monterry, California, on reprogrammable memory, Vinod Dham received an offer from the Intel go work with them. In January 1990, Vinod was in charge of developing the 586 or Pentium processor. He worked relentlessly on the project and the Pentium processor was a big hit in the market. Vinod Dham rose up the corporate ladder and reached the position of the Vice president of the Intel's Microprocessor Products Group. He quits Intel in 1995.

              

Thereafter, Vinod joined NexGen, a start up firm as Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President. When Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) acquired NexGen in 1996, Vinod Dham looked after the development of AMD's famous K6 processor, world's fastest personal computer microprocessor. Later on he quits AMD.

                  

Presently, Vinod Dham is the chairman, president and chief executive officer of Silicon Spice, a communication technology development firm.

VIKRAM SETH

     Indian poet and novelist

Vikram Seth was born in Calcutta in 1952. He earned degrees in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University. He has published 6 books of poetry and 3 novels since 1980. His novel "A suitable boy" won the W.H. Smith prize in 1993. The latest novel written by Vikram Seth is 'An equal music' and it is about the troubled love life of a violinist. Vikram Seth received one of the Britian top honour for his services to literature. The award of the commander of the order 3 of the British Empire was announced earlier in the year by Queen Elizabeth II and given to Seth on 14 February 2001.

Vikram Seth creates a living, breathing world that enchants and grips the reader in all his novels.

ANDERS JONAS ANGSTROM

Swedish Physicist and Astronomer

Angstrom was born in Logdo, Sweden in 1814. He studied and taught in the University of Uppasala. He obtained his doctorate (1839) and became Professor of Physics in 1858 at the University and he stayed there until his death in 1874.

His most important work was 'Optical Investigations' (1853) in which he published measurements on atomic spectra, particularly on electric spark.

Having established the principles of spectroscopy in the laboratory, Angstrom turned his attention to the Sun's spectrum, he published in 1968, 'Researches on the Solar Spectrum'. In this, he made the inference that hydrogen was present in Sun. Since 1905 his name has been officially honoured as a unit of length used by spectroscopists and microscopists.

FAREWELL - A PARTY TO BE ENJOYED IN SADNESS

There is a tradition in every school that the junior students give a farewell to the senior-most and outgoing students. Every student who begins a school life must end it one day. I had studied in this school for six years. During my stay in the school I had learnt to respect and love every aspect of my school.

My teachers had meant so much as they gave me guidance at the most needed hour. I had been in the company of good and helpful friends. And then, our XII class was given a farewell party by the XI class students. The hour to leave all of them had come.

It was indeed with a heavy heart that I thought of the breaking ties. Though this hour is sad, yet the last day in the school is made a memorable occasion for the students who are leaving to take their final Board Examinations.

Our Board Examinations were scheduled to be held in the month of March. The Principal had announced two weeks preparatory holidays in February He also announced the farewell party to be held on 27th of the month.

The function was to be organised by the XI class students under the supervision of their class teacher. Each one of us was given an invitation card for the party by our juniors. We had been asked to reach the school half an hour before the actual time.

On their invitation we reached the school at 2.30pm. Our juniors had organised a grand send off. They had beautifully decorated the audiotorium with buntings and balloons. On the stage there were our honourable Principal, Vice-Principal and other members of the staff. A few rows of front seats were removed and carpets were spread. All the students sat on the carpets.

The function was presided over by the Principal of our school. The cultural programmers started with speeches by the students of XI class. They then presented other programmes like songs, dances, mimicry and short hilarious skits.

Some students from both the classes recited touching couplets and poems befitting the occasion. The students of my class also asked for forgiveness if they had been rude to their teachers during their stay in the school and sought their blessings for a successive career in future.

When the cultural programme was over, the monitor of our class thanked the principal, teachers and juniors. Our teachers gave brief speeches and gave us some helpful sermons for our future life. Lastly, the Principal advised us some points to follow in the forthcoming examinations.

He stressed that none should adopt unfair means. The success of a student is assured when he prepares well for the examinations, understands the lessons and then writes well. Then the function came to an end.

The refreshments were served to all the students. There was a variety of biscuits, cakes and fruits. This small party was liked by everyone. Each student of our class was gifted a pen by the juniors to make us remember our days in school. This was indeed a memorable day in my life.

To remember them in our later life we even took their mini autographs. Every one tried to took cheerful though there was sadness in the air.

School times are the best times but this was my last day at the school. This was the time when I learnt that nothing lingers for long and that life demands a person to move on...

ANAXIMANDER OF MILETUS

Greek philosopher and astronomer

Little is known about his life. He was the pupil of Thales. His writings are now lost, but he is credited with variety of novel ideas. He was the first Greek to use sundial, and with it found the dates of the two solstices(shortest and longest days) and of the equinoxes(the two annual occasions when day and night are equal).

He speculates in the nature of the heavens and on the origin of the earth and of man. Realizing that earth's surface was curved, he believed it to be cylindrical( with its axis east to west); and he was probably the first Greek to map the whole known world.

GIOVANNI BATTISTA AMICI

Italian Astronomer

Amici was born in Modena, Italy in 1786. He studied and graduated as an engineer in Bologna in 1807 and served as Professor of Mathematics are at the university of Modena. He became then as Professor of Astronomy and director of the Royal Museum observatory at Florence.

He made improvements in the mirrors of reflecting telescopes and also developed prisms for use in refracting spectroscopes. He used a hemispheric objective lens to get the first clear microscopic view in 1837, with magnifications as large as 6000 times.

He also invented a combination of three prisms that is still used in spectroscopy and is known as the 'Amici prism'. He observed Jupiter's satellites by making improvements in the reflecting telescope. He made accurate measurements of the polar and equatorial diameters of the Sun, using his own design of micrometer.

ABD AL-RAHMAN AL-SUFI

Persian Astronomer

Little detail is known about the birth and life of Al-Sufi. But it has been established that he was a noble man, whose love of his country's folklore and mythology and interest in mathematics led him to the study of astronomy.

His importance lies in his compilation of a valuable catalogue of 1018 stars with their approximate positions, magnitude and colours.

RALPH ASHER ALPHER

American Scientist

Alpher, the son of a building contractor, was born in Washington D.C. In 1921. His initial interest in science was stimulated by his English teacher, Matlide Eiker, who was also an amateur astronomer. Alpher was studied at George Washington University, received his B.Sc. in 1943 and got his Ph.D. in 1948. His Ph.D. research topic was nuclei synthesis in a Big Bang universe, which was carried out under the supervision of George Gamow. After the World War ll, he joined Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University. Here he worked in varied research programme that, besides cosmology, included cosmic ray physics and guided missile aerodynamics.

Alpher worked with George Gamow and Robert Herman on a series of papers that sought to explain physical aspects of the Big Bang theory of the universe. In 1948 Alpher and Gamow published the results of their work on nucleosynthesis in the early universe. Also in 1948, Alpher together with his colleague Robert Herman, predicted the existence of the pervasive relic cosmic blackbody radiation. This primordial radiation was detected by Arno A. Penzias and Robert W. Wilson in 1965 and was found to have a temperature of 3 K.

The existence of this low temperature radiation that permeates the entire universe is now regarded as one of the major pieces of evidence for the validity of the Big Bang model of the universe, thus Alpher's early cosmological work has had a profound impact towards our understanding of the nature of the universe.

ABU JAFAR MOHAMMAD IBN MUSA AL-KHWARIZMI

Arab Mathematician, Astronomer and Geographer

He was  a member of the academy  of sciences in Baghdad, which flourished during the rule of Caliph alma'mum. He mainly contributed on astronomy and algebra  in mathematics. The algebra enlarged upon the work of Diophantus and is largely concerned with methods for solving practical  computational problems rather than algebra as the term is now understood. Al-Khwarizmi confined his discussion to equations of the first and second degrees.

         His other works are a treatise on the Hindu system of numerals and treatise on geography. Al-Khwarizmi was the first Arab mathematician to expound the new number system systematically. His famous astronomical work, zij-al-sind-hind was based on other  scientists work.

ROBERT GRANT AITKEN

American Astronomer

Aitken was born in Jackson, California, on 31 December 1864. He took his degree at Williams College, Massachusetts. He taught at Livermore College from 1888, and in 1891 he was made Professor of Mathematics at the University of the Pacific. From 1895 onwards he worked at the Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton and he stayed there till his retirement in 1935 as Director of the observatory.

Aitken did much to advance knowledge of binary stars that is pairs of stars orbiting about the same point under their mutual gravitational attraction. During the early years of the project he was assisted by W.J. Hussey, and they discovered nearly 4500 new binary systems. He published in 1932 the comprehensive work 'New General Catalogue of Double Stars within 120 degree of the north pole'. He also produced the standard work, 'The Binary Stars' (1918).

Aitken's other famous work was his revision of S.W. Burnham's Catalogue of double stars.

SIR GEORGE BIDDELL AIRY

British Astronomer

Airy was born in Alnwick in the north-east of England. His father was a tax collector. He studied in Colchester School before going to Cambridge University in 1819. He became Lucasion Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge in 1826, and became Plumian Professor of Astronomy after two years. In 1835, he was appointed as Astronomer Royal, a post he held for 46 years. He was awarded the Copley medal and Royal medal by the Royal Society and was its president from 1827 to 1883.

When Airy was director of the Cambridge Observatory, he introduced a much improved system of meridian observations and set the example of reducing them in scale before publishing them.

He re-equipped the observatory, installing an altazimuth for lunar observation in 1847, a new transit circle and 33 cm equatorial telescope in 1859. He also created (a new department) magnetic and meteorological department in 1838, began spectroscopic investigations in 1868 and started keeping a daily record of Sunspots with the Kew observatory heliograph in 1873.

He was also responsible for establishing the border between Canada and United States and later of the Oregon and Maine boundaries.

WALTER SYDNEY ADAMS

American Astronomer

Adams was born in Antioch (now in Turkey) in 1876. He was the son of missionaries working in Syria, who returned to America in 1885. Adams graduated from Dartmouth College and obtained his AM from the University of Chicago in 1900. He started his career as assistant to George Hale in 1901 at Yerkes Observatory. He then moved to Mount Wilson Observatory in 1904 along with Hale. He served there as assistant director (1913-23) and then as director from 1923, until his retirement in 1946.

His early work was mainly concerned with Solar spectroscopy, but he gradually turned to stellar spectroscopy. He showed how it was possible to distinguish between a dwarf and a giant star merely from their spectra. He is however better known for his work on the orbiting companion of Sirius, named Sirius B.

In 1924, Adams succeeded in making the difficult spectroscopic observations and did in fact detect the predicted red shift, which confirmed his own account of Sirius B and provided strong evidence for general relativity.

JOHN COUCH ADAMS

British Astronomer

Adams was born in the small Cornish town of Launceston, where his father was a tenant farmer. He graduated in 1843 from Cambridge University and became Lowndean Professor of Astronomy and Geometry in 1858. In 1860, he was appointed director of the Cambridge Observatory.

His fame rests largely on the dramatic events surrounding the discovery of the planet Neptune in 1846, independently of Leverrier, the French astronomer. Adam's calculations, however, were ignored by Airy until Leverrier had published his own prediction. Later, James Challis and John Herchel were publicly pointed out that Adam's work had priority over Leverrier.

Adams later worked on the perturbations of the planets (1866), and on the secular variation of the mean motion of the Moon (1852), both difficult questions of mathematical astronomy. His scientific papers were published by his brother in two volumes in 1876 and 1901.

GIORGIO ABETTI

Italian Astrophysicist

Abetti was born in Padva on 5 October 1882. He studied at the university of Padva and Rome and obtained his Ph.D. in physical sciences. He was appointed as professor at the University of Florence in 1921 and he remained there until his retirement there until his retirement in 1957. From 1921 to 1952 he was Director of the Arcetri observatory in Florence.

He was a member of the socio Nazionale, the Academy of Lincei in Rome, and the Royal Society of Edinburg and the Royal Astronomical Society in Britain. His research had been in the field of astrophysics, with particular emphasis on the sun. He participated in many expeditions to observe eclipses of the Sun and he also joined in one such expedition to observe eclipses of the Sun and he also joined in one such expedition to Siberia to observe the total solar eclipse on 19 June 1936. He was well known for his influential popular text on the Sun, and he has also written a handbook of astrophysics, published in 1936, and a popular history astronomy, which appeared in 1963.

DR. ANNIE BESANT

Dr. Annie Besant was born to Irish parents in London on October 1, 1847. From 1893 India was her home. She is one of the foreigners who inspired patriotism among Indians. She declared in 1918, "I love Indian people as I love none other, and... my heart and my mind... have long been laid on the alter of the Motherland". She was a woman of much energy, interests and oratory. She was separated from her husband in 1873. After this she became a member of the Fabian Society and then Theosophical Society. In 1907, she was elected President of this organization. She held that position until her death.

She founded the Home Rule League in 1917. The purpose behind it was to gain freedom of the country and revive the country's cultural heritage. She attended the 1914 session of the Indian National Congress and presided over it in 1917. She could not understand the meaning of the Satyagraha movement. As a result, she withdrew from Home Rule League, in opposition to Mahatma Gandhi's leadership. She identified the talent in young men and women. Her inspiration brought up many leaders. The world famous philosopher K. Krishnamurthy is one of them.

She lived most of her remaining years in India, rejoined at last by her son and daughter. After campaigning brilliantly for Home Rule, she died in Madras in 1933.

ABDUL GHAFFER KHAN

Abdul Ghaffar Khan was a political and spiritual leader of India. He also made a great contribution to the freedom struggle of India. He was respected for his non-violent approaches to the British. He is known as the faithful follower of Mahatma Gandhi. Those who loved him gave him various names. Some called him Badshah Khan (King of Chiefs). But the most famous name given to him is 'the Frontier Gandhi '.

Ghaffer Khan entered politics when he met Gandhi in 1919. At that time Gandhiji was involved in the agitations against the Rowlatt Acts. In the following year he joined the Khilafat movement. The purpose of this movement was to strengthen the spiritual ties of Indian Muslims to the Turkish sultan. In 1921 he was elected president of a district Khilafat committee in his native Frontier Province.

Ghaffar Khan attended a Congress Party gathering in 1929. Immediately after it, he founded the Khudai Khitmatgar ('Servants of God'). It is called the Red Shirt Movement among the Pashtuns. It was an organization that supported the freedom movement. In 1930s Ghaffer Khan had become a member of Gandhi's inner circle of advisers. Ghaffer Khan had always opposed the partition of India. He was very much hurt when the congress accepted the Mountbattan plan for the partition of India. However, he chose to live in Pakistan. His memories, My Life and Struggle, appeared in 1969.

VINOD KHOSLA

Venture Capitalist, One of the co-founders of  Sun Microsystems

Vinod Khosla, a native Indian and the world's No.2 ranked Venture Capitalist, is considered as one of the most influential personalities in Silicon Valley. He is a partner in the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Aged 50, he was among the first  venture capitalist to understand that  internet technology and fiber optics could make communications so fast, cheap and easy and spots the potential of companies that sell gear for high speed optical networks.

He was born in 1955 in a military family in New Delhi, India. He earned a B.Tech degree from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology ( IIT), Delhi. After that he attempted to start his own company in India, a dream since the age of 15. Being frustrated by the experience, he gave up his mission. Then he went to United States and completed M.S degree in Biomedical Sciences at Carnegie Mellon and also earned an MBA degree from Stanford University in 1979. Vowing to become a millionaire  before 30, ambitious Khosla found a business idea and partners from Srandfrod business club. They found Daisy Systems, a computer aided engineering and design company, but failed quickly because the economics of the market went against it.

At 27, Khosla became successful when he co-founded Sun Microsystems with a German student Andreas Bechtolsheim, a multi millionaire. Khosla ran Sun until 1984. In 1986, he joined in Kleiner Perkins, a firm that funded Sun as a general Partner. During this time, Khosla has played key roles in starting companies that are involved in multimedia, semiconductors, video games, Internet software and computer networking. He conceived the idea to optimize SONET for data, a scheme that led to the creation of Cerent Corp, a telecommunications-equipment company which Cisco acquired in 1999 for $6.9 billion. Khosla was also instrumental in launching Juniper Networks, a company many thought as the next Cisco. Others include Viant, Extreme Networks, Lightera etc.

Khosla has won admiration because of his ability to build and fashion companies and technologies. He plays an active role and is not satisfied to sit  back and let others work the plans while he okays the progress. Though he was successful in almost all his ventures, there has been one time that Khosla  had been wrong. He backed 3DO Co, a game-maker whose shares now sell for a fraction of the initial offering price in 1993.

Vinod Khosla came from  an ordinary middle class background. His father was in army. At the age of 16, Vinod  Khosla read about the founding of Intel.  This motivated him to nurture dreams of starting his own technology company. At the age of 20, after graduating in Electrical Engineering from IIT Delhi, Vinod Khosla started a soy milk company to cater to those people in India who did not have refrigerators. But his venture failed.

Vinod Khosla went to the US and did his masters in Biomedical Engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University. His entrepreneurial ambitions attracted him to Silicon Valley and subsequently he did his MBA from Stanford University in 1980.

After graduating from Stanford, Vinod Khosla founded Daisy Systems with two other founders. Daisy systems was the first significant computer aided design systems for electrical engineers. The company went on to make huge profits but driven by the frustration of having to design computer hardware on which the Daisy software needed to be built, Vinod Khosla left the company.

In Vinod Khosla, started the standards based on Sun Microsystems in 1982 to build workstations for software developers. Sun was funded by his long time friend and board member John Doerr of Kleiner   Perkins  Caufield & Byers. At Sun Microsystems, Vinod Khosla pioneered "Open Systems" and RISC processors. He left Sun Microsystems in 1985 and joined Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) in 1986, where he continues to be a general partner of KPCB funds through KPX.

Vinod Khosla also challenged Intel's monopoly by developing Nexgen/AMD. He also conceptualized the idea and business plan for Juniper to take on Cisco's dominance of the router market. Vinod Khosla is also one of the entrepreneurs and professionals founded in 1992. In 2004, he formed khoslaventures  to fund knowledgeable entrepreneurs in their new "social impact" ventures.

Vinod Khosla has been interest in nascent technologies that can have a beneficial effect and economic impact on society. Presently,  he is looking into practicality of the use of ethanol as a gasoline substitute.

Khosla's  current effort is funding and managing application service provider start ups. He is chairman of two such firms, Corio and Asera. This much respected entrepreneur lives in Woodside, CA with his wife and four daughters. Khosla believes in closeness in family. His rules for life include having breakfast and dinner with his family. He is one of three billionaires of Indian origin in Forbes magazine's list of America's richest 400 people.

DR. B. R. AMBEDKAR

From the depths of a life of humiliation, an untouchable arose to touch the skies. He was Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar.

Bhimrao was born in 'mahar' caste, which was considered as untouchable. This fourteenth child of Ramji Sakpal and Bhimabai was born on 14 April 1891. He lost his mother when he was five. From a very young age, he experienced the humiliating treatment meted out to the untouchables. In the school he had to sit away from other children. If he drank water from a common well, he would be beaten up. Innumerable such experiences made him bitter towards the religion.

Later his family moved to Bombay where he attended high school. He married to Ramabai when he was 17 years old. Maharaja of Baroda granted him scholarship to study in the degree college and also further helped him to go to U.S. Of America for higher studies. After studying various subjects like political science, social science, economics, ethics etc, he returned with a doctorate in 1917.

 In spite of such high education, he received the same treatment. In 1920 he went to London to study law and set up law practice on returning back. Then he began working towards the betterment of his people. He addressed their gatherings, made them aware of their rights and he fought for them. British government granted separate electorate for the Harijans, but Gandhiji opposed it fearing that it could separate them from the Hindus, but he agreed to deserve seats for Harijans in the legislature.

Dr. Ambedkar was appointed as the first Law Minister of independent India. He was the chairman of the committee, which prepared the Constitution of India. He is called the 'Father of Indian Constitution'.

Dr. Ambedkar resigned from the post of minister in 1951. In 1956 he accepted Buddhism along with his wife and many followers. He had written many books like 'Untouchables', 'Buddha and Karl Marx', 'Buddha and his gospel' etc. He died in his sleep on 10 December 1956.

DR. A. P. J. ABDUL KALAM

Dr. Abdul Kalam, a great aero-space scientist was appointed as the eleventh President of India in 2002. He is known as the 'missile man of India'.

He was born on 15 October 1931 at Dhanushkodi in Rameshwaram, Tamil Nadu. He was one of the many children of a middle class Tamil Muslim family. He inherited honesty, self-discipline and deep kindness from his parents.

Dr. Kalam completed his schooling in Rameshwaram and then attended St.Joseph's college in Tiruchirapalli. In 1958 he passed his engineering in aeronautics from Madras Institute of Technology.

He joined Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO). Then he moved to Indian Space Research Organization in 1962. Along with his team he successfully launched many satellites. He was instrumental in developing India's first Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV lll), which launched Satellite Rohini in 1980.

Later Dr. Kalam returned to DRDO as in charge of India's Integrated Guided Missile Development Program. He designed and developed India's two guided missiles... Agni and Prithvi.

In 1992 he was appointed Principal Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister. During this period Pokhran ll nuclear tests were conducted in 1998.

Dr. Abdul Kalam was elected the President of India on 18 July 2002. He is a great visionary and has chalked out many development plans for our country. He is most informal person, so people easily identify with him. He is very fond of small children and gives them a lot of importance as well as pays attention to their problems. Dr. Kalam pays equal respect to all the religions.

Dr. Kalam has penned many books and his autobiography 'Wings of fire' is a best seller. He plays Rudra Veena and also composes poems for all occasions. Besides innumerable scientific awards, he has been also honoured with Padma Bhushan in 1981, Padma Vibhushan in 1990, and Bharat Ratna in 1997.

DR. JAGDISH CHANDRA BOSE

Dr. J C Bose was a great scientist. He was a physicist as well as a biologist and has made remarkable discoveries in both the fields.

Jagadishchandra was born on 30^th November 1858 in Faridpur, which is now in Bangladesh. His father was a deputy magistrate in Faridpur. He started schools in those days and Jagdish had his early education in one of these schools.

As a child he was very curious about everything. He liked games too and cricket was his favorite game. He was sent to Calcutta for higher studies. Since childhood he was more interested in plant and animal life, but in the college his professor of physics inspired him to take interest in physics.

He completed his BA when he was 19 years old. In 1880 he went to England for further studies. On his return to India he taught at Presidency college, Calcutta. He saved money to have his own laboratory to do the research work.

In 1891 his research paper on the electromagnetic waves won him Doctorate from the Royal Society of England. He proved many theories of electromagnetic waves, which were proved almost simultaneously by the western scientists like Marconi and Tesla. In November 1894 he used electromagnet waves to ignite gunpowder and ring a bell from distance. This proved that it was possible to send communication signals without using wires.

As he was interested in biology since childhood, he did a lot of research work in plant physiology. He proved that the plants have a life and a nervous response just like animals. He invented a device called Cresograph.

He designed and developed many scientific instruments, which are still usable, even after 100 years. He was a very good teacher and always used classroom demonstrations.

He died in November 1937

DR. C. V. RAMAN

The first Asian scientist to win the Nobel Prize was Dr. C V Raman.

Dr. Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman was born on 7tg November 1888 at Thiruchirapally. His father was a teacher a scholar in physics and mathematics. Raman was considered a genius since early childhood. He completed his matriculation at the age of 12 years. He passed B A Winning a gold medal. He had a boundless curiosity to learn new things, a love for science and enthusiasm for work. He topped M A as well as Indian audit and accounts service examination from Madras University.

In 1907 he got married to Lokasundari Ammal. At the age of 19 he already was on a high government post. Then he was promoted to Calcutta as assistant accountant general. In Culcutta he began research work at the Indian association for the cultivation of science. In 1915 he left the highly paid government job to teach as a professor in science college of Calcutta. He became Palit Professor at the age of 29.

Dr. Raman’s college laboratories became active research centres as many students came him for post graduation studies. He was so dedicated to his work that he often forgot to eat or sleep.

In 1921 he attended the Congress of the universities of the British Empire in London. While traveling by sea, the scientist in him was fascinated by the deep blue colour of the Mediterranean Sea. He made research on the scattering of the sunrays by the water molecules. His work was well appreciated. He was invited to many scientific seminars and conferences all over the world.

In February 1928 he discovered that the monochromatic light on scattering does not remain monochromatic. This discovery of nature’s hidden phenomenon, ‘The Raman Effect’, earned him many honours including British government’s Knighthood as well as the Nobel Prize in 1930.

In 1933 he was appointed the director of Indian Institute of science. He established Indian academy of science in 1934 and also the Raman research institute, which is based on our ancient scientific research. In 1954 he was honoured with Bharat Ratna.

This grand old man of Indian science passed away on 21^st November 1970.

CHILD LABOUR - A MAJOR ISSUE

Child labour is one of the challenging problems in India. The practice of engaging young children in various sectors of labour is evident. It is astonishing to note that there is staggering figure between 60 and115 million working children in India perhaps the highest number in the world (Human Rights Watch, 1996). It is poverty that draws a child to earn money to support the needs of his family. Though it is prevalent in most parts of the country, the problem is acute in socio-economical weaker states like UP, Bihar, Orissa, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and north-eastern states. Besides poverty, lack of education and accessible sources of credit forces poor parents to engage their children in child labour. India is forced to take up the challenge of providing basic amenities to these children.

It is seen that more than 85% of child labour is in the country’s rural areas, working in agricultural activities, such as farming, livestock rearing, forestry and fisheries. Children also develop skills in certain traditional crafts. These children contribute greatly to the national income.

The Government of India is keen to eradicate child labour. India’s unequivocal commitment to the cause of children is well expressed in constitutional provisions, legislations, policies and programmes. The Directive Principle of State Policy and the Fundamental Rights reveal the commitment of the government. Besides, India is also party to the UN Declaration on the Rights of the child, 1959. India adopted the national policy on children in 1974. India also ratified on December 2, 1992, the Convention on the Rights of Child of 1990. This ratification implies that India will ensure wide awareness about issues relating to children. India is also a signatory to the World Declaration on the survival, Protection and Development of children.

Child labour is a great socio-economic problem. Children essentially work to maintain the economic level of the households, either in the form of work for wages, or help in household enterprises, or in household chores. In all the activities the basic objective is to provide the family financial support. In some cases, it has been found that a child’s income accounted for between 34 and 37 percent of the total income of the household.

Poverty has a close connection with child labour. The population of poor people in India is comparatively high. As per the latest report of the Planning Commission, about 22% of the people live below the poverty line. It is of child labour which supports the essential requirements for the survival of the family. The combination of poverty and lack of social security network form the basis of even harsher type child labour-bonded child labour. The bonded children are forced to work hard to pay back sums of money previously borrowed from shrewd money lenders.

Literacy is one of the major determinants of child labour. Lack of education of a major section of the society makes them fall a prey to child labour. Free and compulsory education result in the increase of literacy rate. The policy of providing education for the masses immensely helps a corresponding decline in child labour.

The strong educational base of Kerala distinguishes it from other Indian states. The government of Kerala allocates more funds to education than any other state with a per capita expenditure of 11.5 rupees compared to the Indian average of 7.8 rupees. Moreover, Kerala spends more money on mass education which has led to a dropout ratio of close to zero percent. Here, child work participation ratio is almost zero compared to the Indian average of 7.1%. It is important to note that Kerala Government has made no special effort to curb child labour. It is the expansion of education that has succeeded.

An effective check on the spread of child labour, presupposes an improvement in the state of education. High illiteracy and dropout rates are reflective of the inadequacy of the educational system. Poverty plays a crucial role in the ineffectiveness of the educational system.

The complex issue of child labour is an issue of growing concern. Compulsory education and forceful enforcement of child labour laws alone cannot solve the crisis. The government of India must ensure that the needs of the poor are taken care of to efface child labour. Child labour poses a serious threat to the development of India. It is necessary to understand the ferocity of the problem in its true perspectives. The primary cause of child labour viz. poverty has to be wiped out fully.

The policies and programs of the government conform to its commitment which focuses on the eradication of child labour. Though enforcement is in existence, it has failed to be much effort. Measures have to be initiated in the proper manner by the government inorder to achieve the goal of eradication of child labour.

AKIRA KUROSAWA-THE JAPANESE LEGEND

Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese film director, screen writer, producer, and editor. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 films in a career spanning 57 years. He was born on 23rd march of 1910. Kurosawa entered the Japanese film industry in 1936. After years of working on numerous films as an assistant director and scripwriter, he made his debut as a a director in 1943,during World War II with the popular Judo action film Sugata Sanshiro.

After the war, the critically acclaimed Yoidore Tenshi (1948) in which he cast the then known actor Tashiro Mifune in a starring role, cemented the director's reputation as one of the most important young filmmakers in Japan. The two men went on to collaborate on another 15 masterpieces. Rashomon, which also starred Mifune, became the surprise winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and was subsequently released in Europe and North America. The commercial and critical success of this film opened up Western film markets for the first time to the products of the Japanese film industry, which in turn led to international recognition for other Japanese filmmakers. In 1990,  he received the Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement. After his death on 6th September 1998, he was named Asian of the century in the Arts,Literature and Cultural category by Asian Week Magazine. Also CNN ranked him as one of the five people who contributed the most to the betterment of Asia in the past 100 years.
  

TERRORISM-EVIL INCARNATED

A lot of people die everyday.. But the death of 21 Coptic Egyptian Christians were well talked about.. They were brutally murdered..or were beheaded.. The video was unbearable to any soul with a heart.. Terrorism is one of the gravest problem that the society faces today. It is an issue of global concern. The presence of terrorism can be felt across the globe. It is, today, a much debated issue in all the countries of the world-developing or developed(as if it is something to be debated on!!!! I mean its obvious.. there is chance of forming two sides..)

Terrorism is not a new phenomenon.. The first recorded terrorist attack was the one in USA.. In 1865–1877: 3,000 Freedmen and their Republican Party allies were killed by the Ku Klux Klan and well-organized campaigns of violence by other local whites in a campaign of terrorist violence that weakened the re-constructionist governments in the American South and helped re-establish legitimized segregation. But over years it has undergone changes.. Like any other field.. It has improved in all means.. It has become more lethal, more widespread and more difficult to control. Today, it stand as the most serious challenge before the civil society.

Terrorism has its presence everywhere from Indonesia, Malaysia to Sudan. Somalia, Egypt and Nigeria and Peru. Chile, America to Ireland. Almost everywhere in Central Asia.

Terrorist are the greatest enemies of society because they undermine its stability by creating chaotic conditions leading to mass killing, damage and destruction. Generally, public places like airports, railway stations are their targets, but sometimes they shift their focus to some soft targets like schools, hospitals, trains and buses where security is lax and not vigilant.

Every country has defines terrorism in its own way as per its own suitability. There is no universally accepted definition of terrorism. In fact, terrorism is an unlawful use of violence or threat of violence aiming to inculcate fear among the masses. It is a philosophy of violence which terrorists use to destabilize the economy of a country.

Today they rule the world as Al-Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Boko Haram or in any other hundreds of names left. I feel the nations themselves use to support one or more of these groups in their budding state and finally they reach a situation when that they are out of control. Now it is high time that we, world nations, work together to eliminate terrorism and wipe out them from the earth.

Let us hope for the best..

SATYAJIT RAY

Satyajit Ray was an Indian filmmaker, who is regarded as one of the few great masters of world cinema. Besides film making, he had also written stories and developed his own distinct style of writing. Ray was born in the city of Culcutta into a Bengali family prominent in the world of arts and literature on 2nd May of 1921. Starting his career as a commercial artist, Ray was drawn into independent film making after meeting French filmmaker Jean Renoir and viewing Vittorio De Sica's Italian masterpiece Bicycle Thieves during a visit to London.

Ray directed 37 films, includin feature films, documentaries, short films etc.. He was also a fiction writer, publisher, illustrator, graphic designer, and film critic. Ray's first film, Pather Panchali (1955) won eleven international prizes, including Best Human Documentary at the Cannes Film Festival. The film, Aparajito(1956) and Apur Sansar(1959) form The Apu Trilogy. Ray did the scripting, casting, music scores and editing and designed his own credit titles and publicity materials. Ray received many major awards in his career, including 32 Indian National Fim Awards, a number of awards at the international film festivals and award ceremonies and an Academy Award in 1922 for Lifetime Achievement. The Government of India honoured him with the Bharat Ratna in 1992 

RAHUL BAJAJ

Rahul Bajaj is the Chairman of the Bajaj Group, which ranks among the top 100 business houses in India. The Bajaj Group has diversified interests ranging from automobiles, home appliances, lightning, iron and steel, insurance, travel and finance. Rahul Bajaj is one of the India's most distinguished business leaders and internationally respected for his business acumen and entrepreneurial spirit..

 Rahul Bajaj is an alumnus of Harvard, St.Stephen's and Cathedral. He took over the reins of Bajaj Group in 1965. Under his stewardship, the turnover of the Bajaj Auto the flagship company has risen from Rs.72 million to Rs.46.16 billion. Rahul Bajaj created one of the India's best companies in the difficult days of the licence- permit raj. He established factories at Akurdi and Waluj. In 1980s Bajaj Auto was top scooter producer in India and its Chetak brand had a 10- year waiting period.

The initiation of liberalization in India posed great challenges for Bajaj Auto. Liberalization brought the threat of cheap imports and FDI from top companies like Honda. Rahul Bajaj became famous as the head of the Bombay Ckub, which opposed liberalization.  The scooter sales plummeted as people were more interested in motorcycles and the rivals Hero Honda was a pioneer in it.

                 

The recession and stock market collapse of 2001 hit the company hard and it was predicted that the days of Bajaj Auto were numbered. However, Bajaj Auto reinvented itself, established a world-  class factory in Chakan, invested in R&D and came up with Bajaj Motorcycle.   Bajaj Pulsar is currently a leader in its segment.

                    

Rahul Bajaj was elected to Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra.